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About 5,000 city workers will be furloughed two days a month starting July 2, while other employees will have their pay cut as part of the city’s budget-saving plans announced this week.
The furloughs for the next fiscal year are included in the city’s collective bargaining agreements with the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers, although not all union members will be furloughed.
Some emergency services personnel, such as police and fire dispatchers who are members of HGEA units, would instead take pay cuts on the average of 5 percent, Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s spokesman, Bill Brennan, said.
"To have furlough days, for example, on public safety folks like emergency medical services, ambulance — it’d be very difficult to do that," Hannemann said in announcing the furloughs Tuesday.
The exact number of union members not subject to furloughs was not immediately available. However, of the 10,000 city employees, most will get pay cuts instead, Brennan said.
The city will still provide core services such as bus service, refuse collection and public safety, whose work force includes about 2,100 police officers and 1,100 firefighters represented by their respective unions.
